


There Was You

by space_lace



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-06
Updated: 2012-08-06
Packaged: 2017-11-11 12:58:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/478780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_lace/pseuds/space_lace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Either had never been in love before. Of course it came down to Niou to get them to get together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There Was You

At first he was just annoyed by the teasing from his pinkhaired sempai. Then the older got too much to do to play around with him and he realized he missed it. Now, every so often, the raven would glance at the bubbly boy, taking more notice of everything about him. More and more. It was just weird. Why would he be so interested in Marui?

  


~

  


Akaya frowned down at his test. It would be really noisy at practice today, nagging at him. He leaned his cheek on his table, staring at the bright read 18. It was even worse than before. He was doomed. He wouldn't be allowed to go to tennis practice until he made a re-test. And manage to  _not_ fail.

  


~  
  
  
How he got talked into this, Marui didn't know. Sure, tutoring Akaya was nothing unusual, but sleeping over at his place during the time? Not when he'd lay awake thinking about said little demon at night. But still, here he was, in Akaya's room, in the middle of the night. Akaya had laid out a futon for him, but he hadn't counted on the raven falling out of the bed in his sleep, into his futon, and had now wrapped around him as if he was a human-sized pillow. Needless to say, he didn't sleep a wink that night, and Niou teased him without mercy about it in class.

  


~  
  
  
”Why don't you just go confess already, girly.” Niou said, leaning against Marui heavily, blowing air into his ear. Marui jumped.  
”Don't do that!” Marui tried to hit the trickster but missed. Instead he heard their teacher clear his throat, looking at them.  
”You two, go stand in the corridor.”  
Niou grinned wickedly at his teammate, who growled. He did  _not_  want to know what the white-haired boy was planning.

  


~

  


  
  
  
”Niou-sempai?” Akaya asked and stuck his head into the storage to the gym. If the trickster was there, he was hiding. He walked in, looking around at the things, looking behind them to see if his sempai was in there at all or was just messing with him, as usual.  
Nope, not here.  
  
  
Just when he was about to leave the storage, he could hear Niou. He was talking to.. Marui?  
He peeked out into the gym, seeing the trickster and the volley specialist walking around in the gym, seemingly in no special direction.  
Their voices were only a buzzing sound when they were at the other side of the gym, but once they got closer, he could hear them clearly.  
”..just scared he'll turn you down?” he heard Niou ask, and he wondered what they talked about, pouting over not having heard the full sentence.  
”That's.. not..” Marui frowned as he stared intently on the floor. ”But he's..”  
”You're just being a wimp, girly.” Niou teased, poking Marui in the side.  
”Baka, you're wrong. I'm just.. waiting for the right moment, 's all.”  
Niou's gaze fell on Akaya who was peeking through the door for a second, a evil glint in his eye. He then took a hold on the sleeve of Marui's sweater. ”I'll speed it up a little, then.”  
”Wha-” Marui cut himself off with a shocked sound in the back of his throat when Niou pulled him in close.  
  
  
Akaya gasped from his hiding-spot. It looked like Niou was going to  _kiss_  him!  
Niou was just mere millimeters away when Akaya came screaming at his sempai, about to push him, just as Marui threw a punch at the taller boy.  
Niou met the floor, grinning like mad. ”Ya got a mean right hook, girly.” He winced at the pain on his cheek, then looking at Akaya with a superior look on his face, the grin still there despite the throbbing pain. ”I'm just helping you along~ Piyo.” He waved at them as he rose to his feet, jogging out of the gym, leaving the two other regulars alone.  
  
  
~

  


Akaya kicked at the ground where he stood next to his sempai leaning against the schoolbuilding.  
”So.. what exactly were you yelling about, when Niou- uh.. yeah..” Marui asked, glancing at his kouhai for just a second before looking the other way again.  
Akaya blushed and looked at the small pit he had made by kicking at the dirt. ”Err.. Nothing, really..”  
”Don't lie.” Marui pouted, his gaze also turning to the small pit. ”It was something like 'don't you', but I didn't really hear much more.” He turned to look at the younger boy more firmly this time, Akaya reluctantly meeting his eyes before replying.  
”I said 'Don't you dare touch my Marui-sempai'.”  
A dark blush exploded on the shorter's cheeks, making him look terribly cute. At least that's what Akaya was thinking. ”You're blushing.” he said, laughing a little.  
Marui chuckled, looking at the ground for a moment before turning his eyes back to the seaweed-head. ”You're blushing too. It's cute.”  
Akaya scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. ”No, you're the one looking cute, sempai.”  
There was a long silence.  
”Uh.. So.. Does that mean.. I can ask you out now?” Marui asked, blush only intensifying, making his face almost as red as his hair.  
  
  
~

  


  
  
  
It was the first time dating, for both of them. Neither of them had been in love before, so this was brand new. They hadn't told anyone, but naturally everyone knew by the morning. Niou was the one to ”help them along” (as he'd said to Marui in class the next morning) after all.  
Marui had just frowned and flipped him the finger. Niou had laughed like mad, saying it didn't suit such a small and girly person to do that.  
  
  
~  
  
  
After practice that day, Akaya and Marui walked home together. They didn't say anything, just glancing at each other every now and then. It was cold, and Akaya glanced at his sempai's red hands. They looked cold. The redhead had somehow lost his gloves during the day, and he walked with bare hands as the temperature dropped.  
Without looking, he carefully wrapped his hand around the others, who looked at him, surprised.  
Marui felt a blush tint his cheeks, but hoped Akaya wouldn't see it.  
Akaya didn't, because he was too busy trying to hide his own blush.  
  
  
~  
  
  
The first kiss they had to thank Niou, dressed up as a Yagyuu for, who pushed them under the mistletoe that someone had hung in the clubroom, Yukimura happily clasping his hands and stating that ”It's about time, you haven't kissed once, even though you've been dating for two weeks already.”  
It was insecure and short, but it was so warm that they both remained hugging until Sanada entered the clubroom and telling them to go shower already.  
  
  
When they once more walked home together, this time already hand in hand, they walked a little closer to each other than before, eyes locking for longer spans of time. Marui squeezed the younger's hand as they came up to Akaya's house. He pulled the other close and hugged him. ”Ne.. Akaya.?” he said quietly.  
”Yeah?”  
”Can you.. kiss me?” the shorter asked, looking at his boyfriend.  
Akaya blushed and nodded. ”Sure.” And he pulled the other's face close, for a clumsy kiss that lasted much longer than the first. After a while their confidence built up, and they wrapped closer to each other, Akaya hesitantly asking for entrance with his tongue, Marui allowing it, their tongues meeting in a messy battle. They got so into it, that Marui accidentally bit Akaya's tongue.  
”Oww.” Akaya whined, panting.  
”Ah, s-sorry.. I didn't.. mean to do that...” Marui stuttered apologetically. His face was burning, even in the cold.  
”Ith ohei.” Akaya failed to speak clearly, but still continued. ”Kiff ith beffah?” he asked, sticking out his tongue at his sempai.  
Marui's blush reached his ears by now, but he leaned forward and up to kiss the other carefully.  
Akaya grinned and wiggled his tongue. ”Thanks sempai, all better!” he sang, giving his redfaced sempai a quick hug before turning to open the door.  
Marui's jaw dropped, then he was fuming and blushing. ”You- you moron! You were fine all alone! You tricked me!”  
  
  
Three days later Marui visited the Kirihara-family for the first time. He was wiggling uncomfortably under Akaya's father's stare, his mother's scrutinazing eyes and his older sister's curious and nowhere near inconspicious ogling.  
He was a little scared, but he wouldn't admit to that. Akaya's mother had long and straight darkbrown hair, his sister had as black hair as Akaya himself, but not as curly, and his father's head was even worse than his kouhai's.  
Akaya wasn't really paying attention, his mouth never pausing in his talking, but his mother finally got a word in, efficiently silencing her son. “So, how did you ever fall for my idiot of a son?” she asked.  
“Kaa-chan!” Akaya protested. “I'm not an idiot!”  
“Oh hush you.” his mother answered. “You know you're not the brightest of person.” she turned back to the pinkhaired boy. “So? What do you think of him?”  
Marui looked strangely at the woman. “Err.. He's stupid, has to be taken care of all the time, turns into a real demon at times, and is irritating..”  
The Kirihara's looked at him strangely in turn. Akaya's father spoke for the first time. “But.. you like him?”  
“I- I like him, a lot.” Marui blushed as he said this.  
Akaya's sister squealed, rushing over to hug the short teen. “'Kaya, you should have told me he was such a cutie!”  
Akaya puffed his cheeks up, glaring at his sister. “I  _did_  tell you!”  
“But not that he was  _this_  adorable!”  
Overall, Marui guessed his boyfriend's family had approved of him. If the boob-hug he was being suffocated by was any indication.  
  
  
Akaya's meeting with Marui's family didn't go as smoothly though. It was awkward, for both Marui and Akaya, who was biting his bottom lip at the disapproving stare from both of Marui's parents. Marui hadn't really planned for them to be told at all, but his little brothers had walked in on them cuddling and kissing in his room, a day when they  _should_  have been out of town with their parents, but it seemed like there had been some change of plans he hadn't been told of. And of course, the two small boys had told his parents the moment they stepped through the door, although they themselves didn't understand what they had been doing.  
And it seemed Marui's parents weren't really.. open about such things. Not like either of them cared, but it made it impossible for them to meet at the older boy's house from then on. Not that Marui minded, he liked Akaya's family.  
  
  
~  
  
  
“Ne.”  
Marui looked up as his boyfriend leaned his chin against the top of his head, wrapping his arms around his sempai. “Mm?” Marui put down his pen where he had been trying to get something done of his math homework. “Nani?”  
“Wanna move in with me?”  
Marui blinked, surprised. “Err.. A little early to ask such a thing, Akaya?”  
“Datte~ I wanna know now!” Akaya complained.  
Marui turned around in the young raven's arms, laughing as he ruffled the messy hair. “Baka da na, omae. We're way too young to make such decisions.” He pressed a soft kiss to his boyfriend's lips. “Come on, don't be down about it. We'll talk about it again in a few years.”  
“Meany.” Akaya pouted, but it didn't last long as he initiated another kiss. “Love you, sempai.”  
“Love you too, 'kaya.”


End file.
